The Advent of Christ

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Intro

Well Merry Christmas everyone. It is a joy to be here with you this evening as we celebrate. Tomorrow morning we are going to take a break from every day life and we’re going to spend time opening gifts, eating food, and spending time with family. A day a great celebration and hopefully some good rest. But it is good to take some time out before we get to that and remember the reason why we are all here. The Christmas season is the time of year where we spend time reflecting on our lives, but most importantly reflecting on the one life that came and changed the world. As we enter the Christmas season, we observe what we call advent. Advent means “coming” or “arrival”. It is a season of expectant waiting for that which comes when the countdown is complete. You can think of it in the sense of an advent calendar, or as the church observes it, a season of awaiting the arrival of Christ in the flesh.

We use this advent wreath as a symbol to point us toward the arrival of Christ. And as we count down, we consider what Christ brings with Him. He brings hope, peace, love and joy. The hope He brings is the guarantee of salvation and redemption. The peace He brings is the promise of all wrongs being made right. The love that He brings is the fullness of the love of God for His Son extended to those who believe. And the joy that He brings is that which transcends all circumstances as we trust His joy to be the redemption of our sorrow.

And all it counts down to and is realized in this very moment that we read about in John chapter 1. The Word became flesh.

The Word Became Flesh

Let’s just look at these first few words for a minute here. The Word became flesh. You’ll notice in your translation that “Word” is capitalized. This Word is not a word, but THE Word and is therefore a name that speaks of the One who came in the flesh. Consider the word of God for a moment. You turn back to the book of Genesis and we see the very word of God in action. God speaks and things come into existent. We call this creation ex-nihilo, or out of nothing. God spoke and nothing, literally no thing, became something. At the word of God, that which did not exist came to exist. And here in John 1, the Word that was there in the beginning, who was with God and who was God, came in the flesh. The literal Word of God. The power that brought all things into creation, sustains all things to this day, and redeems all things in the day to come, came in the flesh. And all of this infinite, transcending power was bundled up in a little baby. As the genie in Aladdin would say, “INFINITE COSMIC POWER…itty bitty living space.”

Talk about a miracle. Talk about amazing. The greatest power to ever be, that has always been, came in the flesh for the purpose of redeeming humanity and reconciling the people of God to Himself. And as we continue to look at this verse, we see the results of His coming in the flesh and what it means for us. Look at the next few words.

Dwelt Among Us

The Word dwelt among us. Because He came in the flesh, He could dwell among us. This might draw us back to Genesis once again where we see God walking in the garden to go visit Adam and Eve. But it’s a little different this time. It’s not the spiritual existence of God moving through the garden, but the hands and feet of God moving along the ground the same as we do.

The greek word used here for dwelt is eskEnOsen, which is more literally translated to ‘pitched a tent’ or ‘tabernacled’. The draws us back to the time when God’s presence was localized in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp of Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness awaiting the promised land. As John writes this text, he is saying that the Word becoming flesh and living among us is like God tabernacling among the tribes of Israel, or, put in other words, the presence of God was localized in Jesus the incarnate Word. And now we go through life carrying that Tabernacle with us, the person of the Holy Spirit, as we wander through the wilderness of this world we live in as we await the promised land of a new heaven and new earth.

John doesn’t just stop here. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and as a result…

We Have Seen His Glory

We have seen his glory. Again, we are drawn back to the Old Testament, this time in a couple different ways. If we continue with our understanding of the tabernacle, then we can draw back to when Moses completed the construction of the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34–35 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And we can add to this. Consider when Moses would go up to the mountain to meet with the Lord. The presence of the Lord would descend on the mountain and the Lord would actually turn away from Moses and only show him His back because the glory was too great for him to behold. The glory was so great in fact that when Moses returned to the people he had to wear a veil to hide his face because the glory of the Lord had shown on him so brightly. And it is this glory that came to earth in the flesh. The full glory of God, the presence of God that was revealed to Moses, that had descended on the tabernacle, this fullness of glory was embodied in the person of Jesus for all to see. And John, as one of those witnesses, states plainly the “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” The glory of God in the flesh. And as we finish off this verse, we see the characteristics of this glory and how it is revealed to us: full of grace and truth.

Full of Grace and Truth

This is where the hope, peace, love and joy of the advent season collide into the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace and truth come together in the flesh to proclaim the glory of God and redeem a lost people.

If we drop down a couple verses in John, we can see this fleshed out a little bit more.

John 1:16–17 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

The fullness of presence and the fullness of His glory have been received, and grace upon grace. The grace of God is what brought the Word into the flesh to dwell among us and reveal His glory. It has always been the grace of God, but this is a new grace.

Once upon a time, the grace of God was given through the Law. And through the Law, people can know their sin and that they are sinners. While the Law is perfect in every way, it has been clear since the fall that humanity is not perfect and therefore could not follow the perfect Law. This didn’t take God off course, but worked right into His plans where He would extend His grace once again. And His grace would come to us once again, this time in the person of Jesus. And Jesus, being God, could be that perfect One that humanity needed to fulfill the perfect Law. But Jesus didn’t live that perfect life for Himself, but lived it for us. And by living that perfect life, He could become the once and for all atoning sacrifice for sin that was required according to the Law. So the perfect Law was fulfilled in the perfect life and sacrifice of the perfect Man who is the very power and glory of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. Born roughly around this very night over 2,000 years ago.

This is where truth and grace collide. The truth is that we are sinners in need of a Savior. The truth is that the Law of God is good and perfect and right. The truth is that we are completely incapable of following every letter of this Law with consistency. The truth is that God knew this about us before He even established His Law. And the grace of God is that He made a new way for us, a way where we would not pay the price, but where He would. Because Christ came in the flesh, the perfect will of God was accomplished by the perfect Person of Jesus, and the grace of God has poured out on us because of the love that He has for the Son. And now the hope, peace, love and joy of Christ lives in us as we await His return and we experience the fullness of His presence and glory face-to-face. This is the advent of Christ.